Man of Steel review

The Man of Steel is actually a pretty fun film. But it lacks some of the stuff that makes the Batman franchise great. Much of what is missing is the same level of detail on the script as the Batman / Nolan films and basically failing to make the action that dynamic. Although complete eye-candy, the action scenes become rote after the first time through and begin to cause optic insulin shock. The plot is disjointed and has the major failing of being somewhat illogical. If not that, then just irrelevant due to massive exposition and oddly timed flashbacks and voiceovers.

Much of the film's scripting seems to suffer from one simple problem; the director decides for one reason or another that you are not an intelligent enough viewer to let you draw conclusions from material and adds dialogue to frame a scene for you. Where the speech should be swift, it is long-winded and proselytizing. There are many emotive and powerful lines spoken by good actors in this film. Still, the compulsive repetition of memetic themes seems manipulative and is so constant that even Deleuze would blush. Despite being a well-intentioned man, Pa Kent seems to hold a fundamental and dualistic view of the world. He doles out heartfelt, schlock-filled nuggets like, “Whoever that man is, good character or bad, he's going to change the world.” Between this and the epic Tony Robbin-esque meritocratic rants delivered by Jor-el, one is not too surprised when Superman’s brilliant intellect spits out: “You're a monster, Zod. And I'm gonna stop you!”  Somehow the bad dialogue goes down easily because the acting is good enough to support it. But just barely.

Some of the most ineffective dialogue is delivered is when Kal decides at the end of recounting Jonathan Kent’s death to Lois; He tells her the reason he let his father die was that “My father believed if the world found out who I really was it'd reject me. He was convinced that the world wasn't ready.” But we know that.

We know Kent’s feelings about humanity and his fears for his son from the near 30 minutes of exposition, as well as the fact that we know Clark/Kal can save his father at any time but does not do so because of witnesses at the obvious behest of his father. The director feels the need to repeat it to us. Again. Thanks.

At one point in the movie, a bunch of people are frozen into penis-shaped popsicles and then blasted into a giant tendril chain of cock-sperms that folds into the shape of a vagina before trapping all of the evil Kryptonians in the phantom zone. The rest of the film is littered with phallic imagery. Having a bunch of random things in the movie evoke wang-like imagery should not be a big deal. Generally, it wouldn't, Except here, it pulls you out of the actual viewing experience and ends up making you laugh a little. This might not be a problem either if they were not the only laughs to be had in an otherwise somber film. Whatever, moving on.

Once it is fight time, we basically see Superman and Zodd battle it out for the entire film. The Slugfest is epic but ultimately stupid because there is no talk or notion of collateral damage until the last five minutes of the film. Suddenly after Supes has destroyed a huge portion of the metropolis fighting in it with Zodd and almost certainly contributed to the death of hundreds of people, he decides that murdering Zodd is a worthwhile tactic to keep him from murdering a couple other people. This. Is. Just. Dumb.

Superman could scan Zod’s brain with x-ray vision and figure out where his optic nerve is and burn it out with his own heat vision. He had the guy in a headlock, for fracks sake. He could have choked him unconscious rather than have snapped his neck. But I guess killing the guy was just easier than figuring out what to do with another super guy at the end of a film.

There are already multiple conflicts in the film between Zodd and superman. There really didn‘t need to be another fight with Zodd. Superman really spent quite a bit of the film tossing people through buildings and mountains. It just seemed superfluous to have a final smack-down with Zodd. He could have been sucked back into the phantom zone, and we all would have been happier for it, and superman would have come out not a murderer.

That being said, it was a very effective device to be used to see a compelling character embrace remorse and torment. But doing something seemingly illogical in the plot to show on-screen character depth is just bad writing and clumsy directing if you allow it in your film.

During the course of the film, one might recognize the film suffers heavily from Vader’s Syndrome, where the events in the film are heavily dictated by action that takes place in the beginning or outside the film and that one or more of the character is merely a proxy for a larger fight. Superman is the stand-in for his father, Jor-El. If for no other reason, this may be the one reason the main storyline feels lacking.  

Another reason is that the film dips into a massive unending exposition, which, to be honest, is of such quality that it could have been the entire film in and of itself. The stylistic nature, the feel, and sensitivity in the exposition actually makes me wish that the entire film had been the childhood of this gentle and sensitive Clark Kent and just a little of his time as a super guy. We could have had this whole Zodd thing in the next installment. More Lois, fewer Zodd.

Lois Lane is probably the other major issue in this film. She is played by the amazing  Amy Adams, who gives her lines life, and her character quirk and charm but, for the most part, is offered nothing by the script or story to work with. She is constantly set in situations where her character was excessive. Nothing about her being Lois Lane demanded her being there; she often is left to narrate to empty air and postulate infantile ideas for the audience, and then is used as a plot device instead of as a character.

There is a singular moment in the film where eventually she does shine during a battle with the female Kryptonian Faora. It is short-lived, however, and instead of her clever instincts figuring out to save the day, it is the male scientist who does it. Meh.

The other Lois problem is that there is no chemistry between her and Superman. Their onscreen kiss feels forced and awkward.

It is beautiful; the costumes are great. The actors are perfect. The sadness is, for the most part, appropriate for the sad parts of the film, and well, it is a movie named Man of Steel, and it passes (ever so slightly) the Bechdel test, so it’s at least a little feminist. Overall despite its flaws, the movie is watchable.